Toward the Fire

All last week the British First Army, bolstered by U.S. and French units, continued its slow, careful advance. Steadily Lieut. General Kenneth A. N. Anderson's troops edged over the steep ridges of the Atlas Mountains. At week's end they were twelve miles from Tunis. The decisive battle for North Africa was imminent.

Weather had delayed the Allies. Tunisia's brief rainy season had flooded roads, complicated supply problems. But worse than the rain in Africa's grey skies were Axis planes that pummeled Anderson's forward columns, pounded his bases at Bougie and Bone, trying to disrupt his communications. Only scraps of information came from General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters, but it was apparent that the battle of Tunisia so far had been a struggle for control of the air.

In the beginning the Axis had the edge. Hitler had poured in air strength. His African air chief, Air Field Marshal Erhard Milch, had the advantage of air bases close to the fighting front. Milch's fighters snarled out from Bizerte and Tunis; bombers roared from Sicily and Sardinia and from the little island of Pantelleria in the straits. The farther the First Army advanced, the more vulnerable it became to Milch's stings.

But apparently the scales were being slowly tipped. Algeria-based bombers of Major General Jimmy Doolittle's 12th Air Force blasted Axis fields, crippling Axis fighter operations by bombing their nests. From Libya and from the island of Malta came other Allied bombers. Fighter bases were improvised in the rear of the rolling First Army, and from these, in swelling numbers, Spitfires rose to mix with swooping Axis dive-bombers.

Hitler had capitalized on his temporary advantage to rush more troops to the aid of his Tunisian commander, Major General Walther Nehring. Some of them were transported by huge Ju-528, which Allied planes chased and harassed. Many of them poured in from ships that made the short dash from Sicily. The British Admiralty announced that British subs sank nine of these vessels: tankers and cargo carriers laden with tanks, guns, materiel. But Axis ships continued to land at Bizerte at the rate of two a day. Estimates were that Nehring's force now numbered between 20,000 and 30,000 men.

Nehring had extended his slender fingerhold down the coast to Sfax and Gabes. But his biggest concentration was inside the ring around Bizerte and Tunis.

Somewhere in Algeria, Ike Eisenhower, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham and Major General James Doolittle conferred with Sir Arthur William Tedder, R.A.F. chief in the Middle East,* and Major General Lewis Brereton, chief of U.S. Middle East air forces. Tedder and Brereton had flown in from Egypt. The moment Tunis was cleared, the trap would probably be sprung on Rommel.

Against Nehring's ring, Anderson's troops jabbed. Axis air strength delayed but did not stop them as they attacked the outlying bastion of the German lines. When Nehring counterattacked with tanks they hurled him back. They seized the town of Djedeida, twelve miles from Tunis, and all but isolated that city from Bizerte. Nehring destroyed roads, blew up bridges, dug in for defense. Milch sent his dive-bombers screeching overhead. From Algeria came word that as soon as Doolittle's fighters could spread an umbrella, the First Army would make its final, headlong charge into the fire.

*Promoted last week to Vice Chief of all of Britain's air forces.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.